bath time!

Unlike his big sister (who you can't get out of the water anymore now -- be it at home or the swimming pool...) Noah loved the water from the first time he dipped his little feet in.

He very much enjoys lounging in the warm water, kicking his feet, having Mama rub his belly, shampoo his hair and massage his head, and snuggling into the towel afterwards!

dress (!) up

Charlotte very much likes pink but also exclaims often that her favorite colors are brown and black. (In fact, she had an obsession with wearing brown pants for a long time...)














Generally Charlotte is not the girly girl, but more of a tomboy that likes to wear comfy and practical clothes that are best for climbing and romping around.














So it was quite a surprise that she loved wearing and modeling this dress a few weeks back. But then again, who would not love posing with her beloved Panda?!

praying feet

daddy x2

noah's arc

Charlotte is a little confused.

After two years in a mini mini-crib (it wasn't even a full-size mini crib), Charlotte seems to miss the comfort of being able to push against all four sides at once. She's taken to filling the ample space of her normal-sized crib by recreating Noah's Arc.

Beside her in bed the other night (by no means an atypical scene) were:

Rosa: pink bunny rabbit; best friend
Other Rosa: pink bunny rabbit
Unnamed Rosa: pink bunny rabbit
Leo: yellow lion; Rosa's best friend
Tiger Lily: large tiger pillow
Schaf: eviscerated remains of a once-functioning sleep sheep
Lammy: lamb blankie
Elmo: red mutant
Bridget: baby doll
Bobo: baby doll
Lilly: purple dog
Unnamed: small baby
Unnamed: medium baby
Unnamed: large baby

good morning

Sneaky how mother nature engineered such a sweet innocent look that lets you forget right away how many times you were called out of bed in the past night... ;-)

we are MUSICA!

Charlotte LOVES singing, dancing and music class at daycare -- so we got her a few more instruments.

Enthusiastically, she assigned them right away and had us all play together.











When asked what our band is called, she exclaimed "Musica!"

May we present:

Charlotte: vocals (lots), flute and xylophone
Mama: second flute (at best)
Daddy on the drums

The two Rosas, Noah and Penny made a pretty decent, although at times lethargic, audience...

Until Rosa was invited upstage for a raging guest performance on the castanets ;-)

well, hello!

Before leaving with Daddy in the mornings, Charlotte always jumps into bed with Mama and baby Noey to cuddle a bit and give good bye kisses. The other day, she ran back into her room and brought her good friend Elmo -- so that he could "keep Noey company and watch over him during the day"...

Noah found the encounter quite fascinating!

simply charlotte

Charlotte is not a quiet kid: she has energy - physically and verbally, lots of it! In fact, we've been told by quite a few people that "she has spunk" ...

Many pictures on the blog have already depicted that. Now that Charlotte is a chatty toddler, the things she says also give testimony to her fun character (she likes to call herself "funny bunny";-).






Recently, Charlotte has been hearing a lot about 'learning' -- she is learning how to use the potty, how to dress and undress herself etc. ... and she is eager to learn and do everything herself.

We have also been talking about baby Noah not being able to eat, walk or talk yet -- and that he still has to learn all those things.  So in a conversation with Mama and Daddy, Charlotte applied this concept further:

The other day, she exclaimed "Noah and me were both in Mama's tummy!"

Mama nodded in agreement "Yes, you and Noah were both in my tummy." 

Expanding on her thought, Charlotte added "In Daddy's too!"

Mildly smiling, Mama told her "No Daddies can't have babies in their belly, only Mamas."

Thinking for a moment, Charlotte agreed and concluded "Yes, he still has to learn how to do that!" 

Good luck with that, dad! ;-)

smiley face

Noah has changed already so much in the past weeks: eating like a champ (apparently, he's determined not to stay a "little" brother for too long), he was already well over birth weight right after the first weekend we brought him home and is now a good 12 pounds -- close to half of Charlotte's 25 pounds ;-)

Around week 5-6, Noah also started his charm offensive: he happily smiles with everyone that flirts with him, and can't wait for his sister to bring her girlfriends home!

mama x 2

meet & greet

In the last couple of weeks, the grandparents came to visit of course:
to meet Noah and spend time with Charlotte.

Thanks for cuddling, playing and reading with us! (And helping Mama & Daddy get some rest ;-)

how did that happen?!

The last two blog posts showed us again how quickly 2 1/2 years zoomed by with Charlotte.

With Noah, time seems to have accelerated even faster:

At 8 weeks old, he has already grown from a sleepy newborn (that we just brought home yesterday,
I swear!) to an alert, interactive and exploring infant.

sand-skiing and camouflage

I think this is from January in La Jolla. It is 63 degrees and raining in DC. It is October.

sunday morning (many months ago)

 

 

see, noah, tummy time ain't so hard

NSA

Long-time readers of this space will know one of us is a big fan of surveillance. Heck, Daddy could practically be an unpaid endorser for night-vision wifi cameras. Watching the odd, contorted positions of children sleeping is always entertaining.

Noah still sleeps wrapped like a burrito. The length of his nap is seemingly determined by how long it takes him to weasel his arms out of the swaddle. Here he's halfway towards waking up.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was celebrating the U.S. Men's National Team [soccer] scoring their first goal against Mexico a few weeks back.